Questions For Christians Series #3: How to discern God’s voice from Satan’s voice?

I’m launching a new series called Questions For Christians. These questions are compiled from personal conversations and research from non-believers.

QUESTION:

How to discern God’s voice from Satan’s voice?

ANSWER:

I recently wrote an article about discerning the voice of God but I will recap briefly here. First of all, anything God tells you will never contradict the Bible. God does not manipulate, deceive, coerce or lie. It helps knowing how God feels about you, His creation, to really get a good perspective of what someone, who loves you so deeply, will say (Ephesians 2:4-5.)

Most of the time we can easily discern His voice from our own worldly desires but we are not always accepting to it. This can be difficult when we have our own plans and you convince yourself that your ideas are better. But God always knows best (Proverbs 3:5.)

Another tip to discerning His voice is to ask yourself if your “options” or thoughts will ultimately give glory to God (1 Corinthians 10:31.) It can be a challenge to ask this question, especially if it’s something simple. If you’re looking to purchase something, I would say that as long as you can afford the purchase and it does not disobey God’s laws, such as what is modest and appropriate, then you should be okay. Which brings me to my next point.

If you want to go out with friends and go to a club where there will be excessive drinking and provocative dancing, this will not glorify God and it is also blatantly against scripture (Proverbs 23:20-21, Ephesians 5:18, 2 Timothy 2:22.) Putting those decisions alongside God’s Word will help you decide what is best and which “voice” to listen to.

Eventually, things will become easier and the more you familiarize yourself with God’s Word and the more you have a constant dialogue and relationship with Him, the better things will be in discerning His voice.

*All scripture is from the New International Version unless noted otherwise.